Federal Gun Ranges

While it would be nice for some military ranges to be open for public use, I'll go out on a limb and say that it would not generally be good for all military ranges to be open to the public. There are national security issues there among other things.

I work at one huge military weapons range, Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. Having the public on a range where you are testing classified weapon is a problem. The requirements to actually get on the test ranges at APG are stiff. It requires security clearances and a need-to-know among other things. This is important to keep weapons development under wraps.

There is also the problem of idiots like Ward Churchill advocating that soldiers murder their superior officers. This is called fragging. Can you imagine the problems that could arise if armed civilians were given free reign over a military base? All you would need to attack an Army base is a cover story as a gun club. Generally the military also regulates personal weapons pretty heavily as part of general base security for this reason.

Unauthorized possession of a deadly weapon (like a firearm) is prohibited in government buildings under Title 10, USC, Section 930. I'm guessing the government can prohibit public use utilizing that ordnance should they desire to do so.

UPDATE: It seems the law in question directly applies to rifle ranges, which are a small subset of the weapons ranges operated by the military.